We are very pleased to announce the release of Global Roam. This builds on the release of Global Download last week and allows users to browse global data in the familiar, user friendly, Roam online mapping interface. Global Roam is very much a work in progress and you will find that some of the standard functions are not yet available, but we were keen to get something out to users as soon as possible and we’d love to know what you think of it and where you think it can be improved.

Global Roam showing Central Park in Manhattan

As mentioned in our previous blog post, Global Digimap is available as a beta service as we look to build a suite of datasets, themes and formats that best meets the needs of our users. We will continue to develop the Global Digimap service over the coming months, shaped by the feedback that you give.

Global Roam delivers the familiar Roam interface with detailed global data sourced from Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap. The application includes the usual annotation tools (recently renamed ‘drawing tools’) along with global search functionality. The most zoomed out maps use Natural Earth data which changes to OpenStreetMap as you zoom in. Future plans include:

adding additional data from the rich OpenStreetMap dataset including point features

integrating the print interface to allow high quality printed maps up to A0

addition of the feature information tool allowing users to view the attributes of selected features

creating alternative grey-scale and colour basemap styles

inclusion of the measurement tools

customisation of the map through the Map Content panel

It’s worth mentioning that maps saved in Global Roam are not compatible with other Roam clients and vice versa as they use a different projection system. We will of course be looking to resolve this very soon.

Access to Global Digimap

During this development phase, and in return for engagement with the development process, the service will be free of charge for institutions that subscribe to another Digimap Collection. We would like to know what you like and don’t like about it, what features and what new data you would like to see added. We can’t promise to include everything but the more we hear from you the better able we are to prioritise different requirements and create the best possible service.

If you would like access to Global Digimap please ask your local Digimap Site Representative to request access through the Digimap helpdesk and we will ensure your institution is switched on.

Get in touch

It is never too early to let us know what else you would like to see, we are very keen to hear your ideas of how we can make something really useful; our contact details are below:

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